"Matthew, you're the rightful King of Spades."
Matthew froze in his spot when he heard Arthur say that. All those months believing that he was the Ace of Spades, only to find out he was the rightful King all along.
Matthew snapped out of his shock when he saw Alfred lift his head off the table and look at him.
"Al?" Matthew asked, hesitantly, "Is it true?"
"It's true, Mattie," Alfred admitted gloomily, "You got your Mark just before I did, and Berwald died just before Mikkel."
"Don't be so hard on yourself, Alfred," Yao reassured, "You received the King's Sword, after all. I doubt the Timepiece would allow such a switch if you weren't able to handle the strange mission."
"We still have a problem," Ludwig interrupted, "We have no proof that this is all true. The Ledgers may say these things, but what if they are misleading us?"
"There is a way to test it," Lilli argued, "Guinevere's Ledger says that a Royal who takes the Mark of another Royal in their rank can summon the symbol of the other Suit. If Antonio was the rightful King of Diamonds, then Matthew should be able to summon the Diamond Sword."
Matthew stood from his chair, holding onto it with his left hand while summoning magic in his right. He noticed that he had access to two weapons from Spades and another from Diamonds. Closing his eyes, Matthew focused on the magic, commanding the Diamonds and Spades influences to work together. He soon felt something materialize in his hands, and the gasps from everyone else told him to open his eyes and look.
It was the Spade Sword, but its design was merged with that of the Diamond Sword. The hilt was adorned with both blue and orange.
"It's like the Sword I saw in my dream," Arthur said, "Of course, with only two of the Suit colours so far."
"It's beautiful," Matthew heard Lilli mutter, before they noticed a glow of blue magic coming from where Alfred was sitting.
"What can you feel, Alfred?" Matthew asked.
"You've blocked off my access to the Sword," Alfred replied, "But I can feel the Axe."
"This would also explain something else," Gilbert added on, "During the fight in Hearts, Antonio used regular axes, refusing to summon a Diamond weapon. If Natalya took Francis's Mark, she would have taken control of the Diamond Axe, and Antonio would end up with the Diamond Sword if he tried to summon the Axe. It's possible that the Timepiece switch allowed Antonio and Francis to exchange use of the Sword and Axe, until such a time as one of their Marks was taken. I would suspect that Matthew and Alfred here can do the same."
"I suppose that confirms it, then," Ludwig stated, "Matthew is the King of Spades and Diamonds, while Alfred is the Ace of Spades."
"This would also confirm that Natalya has three Ace Marks and Ivan only has one King Mark," Yao added on.
"Antonio mentioned something about that," Matthew said, "Ivan was about to chop my head off in Hearts, when Antonio said that he not only knew the most about the Absorbing, he also knew exactly how many Marks Ivan had. Antonio used that argument to persuade Ivan to kill him instead of me."
"Why would Antonio say that?" Feliciano questioned.
"Antonio thought he was expendable," Gilbert continued, "For some reason, even though he was the rightful King of Diamonds and knew the most about the Absorbing, he insisted that Matthew and Ludwig were more important to rescue than him. He must have suspected that one of you would be heavily involved in the Absorbing."
"They're not the only ones Antonio was protecting," Lilli said, "Jeanne's letter says she suspected that I would be involved in the Absorbing, so she instructed Antonio to protect me at all costs. When we were escaping, Francis stayed behind to buy us time, mentioning a 'Code Juliana'. They spoke of how they needed to get me out of there, and how Francis would fulfill his duty to Antonio."
"A emergency plan, named after the Queen who wrote about the Absorbing," Yao summarized, "It sounds like Antonio and Francis knew to prepare for such a situation. And if Roderich was using magic, while the other Clubs were acting with hostility, I can see why they would resort to such measures. The question is, how would they know that Lilli would be involved?"
As the group paused for a second, Matthew remembered something he had seen earlier that day.
"The Diamond Timepiece," Matthew said, "Antonio and Francis must have looked at it together at some point during the three years that Lilli has been Queen so far. They would have seen what we saw today, and considering that the Absorbing was supposed to start during Antonio's reign, they put two and two together."
"What did the Timepiece show?" Gilbert asked.
"It froze the moment I received my Mark," Lilli elaborated, "Even to this day, it still shows my time as such. Putting it back a single moment moves the Queen's time to Jeanne's dying moment. All four times are frozen at that moment, so it still shows Vash, Francis and Antonio as alive, even though they are dead and their Marks have been absorbed."
"We saw something similar in Hearts, although I'm not sure how you got your Timepiece to show the times in numerical format," Ludwig added on, "The Hearts Timepiece is showing Feliciano's time as at the twelve. Both my time and Kiku's are still showing the same as when Feliciano and Lovino received their Marks five years ago. If anything, Kiku's time should have struck twelve at some point in the last couple months."
"Had either of you seen the Hearts Timepiece at any point in the last five years?" Peter asked.
"Neither of us had, not since Feliciano and Lovino had their Marks tested," Ludwig replied, "I don't know if Kiku had seen it. If he had, then he must have taken Lovino there with him."
"I think they did," Feliciano muttered, staring at the Hearts Ledger in front of him, "And I think I figured out what they would keep hidden from Antonio."
"You found the Absorbing in Valencia's Ledger?" Yao asked, "What does it say?"
"It speaks of the Intended, and how to identify them," Feliciano transcribed, "With the Absorbing uniting the four Suits under one banner, there are specific Royals that are destined to have all four Marks of their ranks. The Intended King, Queen, Jack and Ace would have the intelligence, bravery, kindness and humility needed to unite the four kingdoms in peace and harmony. Should a non-Intended take the place of an Intended, they would bring discord among the kingdoms, and the desired peace and harmony would not be achieved to its fullest extent. Once the Absorbing is complete, these Royals will live as immortals and rule the Deck until they are no longer needed."
"So, the four Intended Royals are meant to survive and become immortal?" Arthur summarized, "How do we identify them?"
"This is the part that scares me," Feliciano continued, "The Intended Royals would be born with imprints of their future Royal Marks on their skin. They would be hardly noticeable from a distance, but the faint outline would be seen if close enough. They would turn their Royal colour if they came in proximity with a symbol of their Suit. When the Intended officially becomes a Royal, the imprint will turn into a full Mark, and the Suit's Timepiece would freeze at that moment. The Absorbing will begin the moment that all four Suit Timepieces had frozen."
Matthew froze in shock as he considered what Feliciano had said. If the Spade Timepiece was supposed to freeze the moment that an Intended received their full Mark, then how could he and Alfred both have had imprints?
"This room is way too quiet."
Matthew snapped out of his shock at the sound of Ludwig's voice and looked around. All the other Spades were also in shock, as were Lilli and Feliciano.
"I agree," Gilbert said, also looking around, "I think some people need to talk. Who wants to start?"
"I had a Diamond imprint on my ankle," Lilli admitted, "Jeanne saw it a few months after Vash became the Jack of Diamonds. She said in her letter that she suspected I would be important because of this. When she died during our visit to Spades, Antonio asked me to check my ankle, and we found it had turned into a full Diamond Mark."
"That would make Lilli our Intended Queen," Peter accepted, "Who's next?"
"Lovino knew of mine," Feliciano revealed, ignoring the suddenly shocked expression on Ludwig's face, "We were surprised when he also got a Heart Mark, as he never had an imprint like I did. I'd say he must have told Kiku about my Mark when they saw the frozen Heart Timepiece. They probably realized they couldn't tell Antonio that they were protecting an Intended."
"During the attack yesterday, Lovino insisted that you be rescued," Gilbert supplemented, "When I mentioned the Absorbing, they must have known that you would be in serious danger."
"We have our Intended Jack as well, then," Peter concurred, "Who wants to speak on behalf of Spades?"
"I can," Alfred volunteered hesitantly, "Matthew and I were both born with imprints of Spade Marks. We were seven years old, living on the streets, and got arrested for stealing bread. Mikkel discovered our imprints when punishing us in the dungeons, and showed us to Berwald and the others. Tino officially adopted us, and they trained us for our likely futures as Spades royalty."
"So they did know you were Royals before you got your Marks," Ludwig tested.
"Yes, we knew," Emil confirmed, "They were prepared for whatever Royal rank they would each have. We even checked to see if either of them had become the Jack or Queen when Lukas and Tino died. We were worried that the other Suits would punish us if they knew we were training future Royals, so we hid them for 12 years."
"Wait a second," Gilbert interrupted, "How can Spades have two Intendeds?"
"That's what I'm wondering," Matthew said, "Arthur said that the Timepiece froze when Alfred got his Mark. If the Timepiece was able to keep going after I got mine, then why would I also have an imprint?"
"If Alfred is an Intended and Matthew is not, then we have another problem," Peter reported, "Assuming that all four Suits were to be represented among the Intended, the Clubs representative would be Natalya, their newest Royal. However, if Alfred is the Ace of Spades as we determined earlier, that would give us two Intended Aces and no Intended King."
"It says here that there is meant to be a Suit with no Intended Royals," Feliciano countered, reading Valencia's Ledgers again, "When the Absorbing takes shape, one of the four Suits will discover that they have no Intended, and that they are not meant to survive. Hungry for power and envious of the fate of the Intended, the Royals of this Suit will try to usurp the Intendeds. Should an Usurper succeed in taking an Intended's place, they would lead the anarchy and rebellion against the Intended, forcing the Deck into war, chaos and ruin."
"That sounds a lot like a group of Club Royals that we know all too well," Arthur commented, "And if one of the Suits has no Intendeds, then one of the others must have a second Intended. Spades fits the bill with both Matthew and Alfred having imprints, and their Marks appeared close enough together for the Spade Timepiece to freeze with both their times directly at the 12."
"I say that's enough to confirm it then," Peter stated, "King Matthew, Queen Lilli, Jack Feliciano and Ace Alfred are the Intended Royals, leaving Clubs as the Usurping Suit."
Author's Notes
And now you know what the imprints were all about! Sorry about the information overload in these two chapters, I was planning to spread it out a bit more, but I took out the intermission scene.
What Feliciano is saying about Lovino and Kiku knowing about the Absorbing ties into a deleted scene between Chapters 18 and 19. When Kiku took Lovino to inspect the Hearts Timepiece and found it frozen, they discovered that Feliciano was an Intended as discussed in Valencia's ledger. They also had no guarantee that Antonio was not an Usurper, even if he was possibly the foretold descendant of the Matron Queen. Lovino then hid the ledgers with Feliciano, and sent Giovanni to spy on Antonio in Diamonds.
